12. Anne Gittinger, owns 11 percent stake in Nordstrom, founded by her grandfather

Seattle, Washington

Net worth: $1.7 billion

Places 392nd on Forbes 400 list

Gittinger, 79, is lucky to have been born into the founding family of Nordstrom, which began as a shoe shop in Seattle in 1901. The company now has 118 full-line stores, 178 Nordstrom Racks and two Jeffrey botique stores, according to Forbes. Gittinger's nephews Blake, Peter and Erik run the company, while she watches over some charitable donations, Forbes wrote.

McCaw and his brothers took over their dad's cable TV business in 1966 and eventually became pioneers in the cellular telephone industry with the first nationwide network, according to a 1998 Forbes profile of McCaw. Now at age 66, McCaw is living a more quiet life, though his intellectual property firm Pendrell recently won a settlement with Amazon and is set to battle other giants in the tech world soon, Forbes reported.

Jannard dropped out of USC to go tour the Southwest on a motorcycle. He wound up founding Oakley, Inc., the sports company best known for its sunglasses. He sold it in 2007, after founding RED Digital Camera.

Some people invest in real estate, or stocks. Paul Allen buys sports teams, gives away billions ($1.5 billion to date) and plays in a rock band. This cancer-surviving Microsoft co-founder doesn't show any sign of slowing down at age 62.

Ballmer was employee number 30 at Microsoft and still holds the largest chunk of shares in the company, according to Forbes. Since leaving his post there, he and his wife have been giving away plenty of money. Ballmer owns the L.A. Clippers, which he bought in 2014 for $2 billion, Forbes reported.

The 77-year-old co-founded Nike in 1964 with his old track coach, Bill Bowerman. They each put up $500 to start the company, which was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. The company changed to Nike Inc. in 1971 and its trademark swoosh has been known ever since. According to Forbes, Knight announced this past June that his is stepping down as chairman of the company.

Jeff Bezos may not be well-liked by those who think Amazon is ruining Seattle, but he's still filthy stinking rich. The 51-year-old who founded Amazon.com in his Bellevue garage is also the owner of the Washington Post and has his hands into outer space with rocket company Blue Origin.

Pick a list of rich people and Bill Gates will top it. The co-guru behind Microsoft now has less to do with that company and much more to do with his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well as pushing social reforms through political support, Forbes wrote. Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft last year.

The annual list of the wealthiest Americans came out Tuesday morning. Take a look at the 25 richest, how much they're worth and whether they inherited their money or were self-made billionaires. Click to see the list.